Sunday by Marcelo Tolentino
The idea for the picture book Sunday by Marcelo Tolentino is simple. The family gets together on Sunday, like they do every Sunday, and our hero decides to spice things up and make some fun. The child, Martin, and his dog make a Sunday at home into an adventure to faraway places. All he needs is a lot of imagination. Seeing penguins, pirates and deserts is just the start. When he is finally ready to come home, he is ready to regale his tales to […]
The Adventure Zone, Vol. 6: The Suffering Game by The McElroy Family
The Adventure Zone was one of my favorite podcasts for quite some time. I was always tangentially interested in Dungeons & Dragons, though I never went further than making a character on a sheet. But after one night of playing board games with friends, one of them recommended I give The Adventure Zone a try. I was not familiar with the McElroys back then, and had only heard of their more popular podcast My Brother, My Brother, and Me. I did not expect listening to […]
Desperate Measures (Deluxe Edition) by Katee Robert
One of my favorite things I’ve overheard in a bookstore was one shopper hand selling a Katee Robert book to another shopper by saying, “they are a chaos peddler of joy and smut!” No lies detected. Katee Robert’s books are fun. They are a good time and they don’t make me feel bad about enjoying them because Robert is intentional in their writing. Desperate Measures, the first in Robert’s Wicked Villains series is being rereleased with a change to the main character’s name, lots of […]
Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
Although it follows the beats of typical quest novel, I really enjoyed reading Children of Blood and Bone. The story is set in the country of Orïsha and told from the POVs of 3 characters, but the one who gets the most attention is Zélie. Her maji mother was killed when Zélie was a child after King Saran decided to eliminate magic from the land. Saran now oppresses people known as divîners, meaning they would have eventually become maji if he hadn’t ended magic. One […]
A Fellowship of Bakers and Magic by J Penner
Arleta Starstone adores baking, but she’ll admit that she’s just scraping by selling her wares thanks to the fact that she’s magicless. When her neighbor enters her in the Langheim Baking Battle, Arleta doesn’t plan on actually going. But between her neighbors and the elf who comes to tell her she’s been selected, Arleta finds herself convinced. Armed with only her baking skills, Arleta will take on the competition, find some new friends, and even maybe fall in love. I really wanted to like this […]
Clockwork Princess by Cassandra Clare
As Tessa prepares for what she hopes is a happy future, the threat of Mortmain rears it’s head again, threatening everything that she’s gained so far. While she has the support of the other at the London Institute, other allies are thin on the ground. Tessa will have use everything she’s learned about her own powers to stand up to Mortmain’s army. This was a satisfying end to the trilogy. While not everything is wrapped up with a bow, we do get endings for almost […]
